How much of a factor were injuries in Syracuse football's late-season slide last year?

Frank Ordoñez / The Post-Standard, 2011Syracuse's Mikhail Marinovich and Rutgers' Kaleb Johnson match up in the third quarter of a game last season.

Syracuse University's student newspaper, the Daily Orange, has put out its SU football season preview, and included in that is a story by DO staff writer Michael Cohen about the effect that injuries had on the Orange's late-season slide.

Cohen writes that injuries to several players -- including 10 of the 11 starters on defense -- took its toll on the Orange in the second half of the season.

Eleven players — or more than 10 percent of the active roster — suffered concussions last season with a frequency that surprised the coaching staff, Marrone said in an extended interview. Other injuries, many of which have not been made public until now, also piled up, and 10 of the 11 starters on defense dealt with serious ailments in the latter stages of the year.

“We were very banged up,” said Mikhail Marinovich, a defensive end on the 2011 team who has since graduated. “A lot of guys, including myself, weren’t even in a lot of practices and just kind of played the day before and then game day.”

Marinovich said he played all season with three herniated discs and a bulging disc in his back.

Syraucse football coach Doug Marrone rarely discussed injuries last season -- "It really never crossed my mind to get up there and start listing off injuries and 'woe me' and 'woe this team,' " he is quoted as saying -- but said that the coaching staff has made changes in the players' workouts and practice routines to try and reduce the number of injuries.